Families and friends...

We are coming to the end of our 8-day break. It's been really lovely catching up with family and friends, including those from Ukraine. During our visit to my Mum in Upton on Severn, Bob went over to nearby Pershore to catch up with the last family we helped to move to England, a mother and daughter who had spent many months in a refugee centre in Lviv. They live in a lovely home with kind and caring sponsors, but they're incredibly homesick. Their house in eastern Ukraine has been destroyed and their town is still being shelled so there's no chance of them going home yet. However, a link with the Baptist church in Upton, where there is a large community of Ukrainians, may help to reduce their feelings of loss and isolation.

And now we are staying with Anthea, the sponsor of the first Ukrainian family in Trawden. This family has done so well. Both adults are working full-time and they've managed to rent a small cottage locally so that their little girl can still attend the village school, which she loves. They remain close to Anthea and her lovely dogs, one of which is blind and one deaf.
Throughout this break we have been planning our next aid trip. After arriving in Krakow on Tuesday, we will go with Tomasz, Paszki dla Ukrainy, to his Institute, where his students will help us to pack the van. We will deliver a generator, powerbanks and powerbank charging stations, and other aid to a destination in southern Ukraine. We also have bags of dog food.

During this break we had the opportunity to collect 3 generators from our house in Trawden, kindly donated and transported, following our appeal on BBC Radio Lancashire. We managed to fit the generators (and my 6'4" son!) into our car and took them to my brother's shed in Chippenham. Hopefully, Shaun from UK4UA will be able to collect them in the near future so they can be taken to Ukraine.
And today, again, news of buildings and energy infrastructure being destroyed, and civilians killed. More evidence of Putin's absolute disregard for the civilian population. But the fight goes on. The UK is the first country to offer tanks to Ukraine. 12 Challenger tanks. It's a start.

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